San Diego's home inventory crunch

San Diego's home inventory crunch

Competition for new housing has become so fierce that some potential buyers are having to get on waitlists for their chance to buy properties. If you’re among the 100-plus people in a queue, you can blame that on San Diego County’s lack of new construction and near record-low listings. Here's a closer look at how we got here. (Did you miss this?: Want a new home? Line up)

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1

Housing permits are down...

They've risen during the past three years, but they're still about half of what the county needs, about 12,000 units, according to SANDAG estimates.

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2

New-home supply is down...

Building paused during the recession and has picked up slightly in some areas. Still, construction has remained low largely because builders face a unique challenge: lack of land that can be developed. Most of the region is already built out save for acreage in Otay Ranch.

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3

Overall home sales are up...

The total number of transactions are far from what we saw at the peak of the market but have remained fairly strong during the past year. A dwindling inventory paired with rising housing demand has meant fierce competition in some ZIP codes.